Assam: Girl allegedly brutally assaulted at a de-addiction center in Guwahati

Are de-addiction centres really safe in Assam? When the society at large believes that such centres play a pivotal role in helping people to quit addiction through counselling, allegations have surfaced that a female inmate was subjected to severe physical assault.

In fact the traumatized victim has sought Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s intervention in the matter.

A girl from Mangaldoi district has levelled serious allegations against the Peace Wellness Foundation, a rehabilitation centre in Guwahati.

As per the allegations, the victim who was staying at the centre had to face many uncalled for situations.

Narrating what had happened, the victim said,”I am a recovering addict. I was in a rehabilitation centre for almost 2 years. Its name is Peace Wellness Foundation which was earlier situated in Chandmari but has now shifted to Japorigog. Initially I did not face any issues, I could cope up.

But when I again got admitted to the rehab centre, some unimaginable things happened there. The rehab centre authorities came to pick me from my home, they kept on slapping me till I reached Guwahati. Three persons came and each one of them hit me. After reaching the center, I kept on arguing with them, after that they hit me with sticks. Even they stripped me and thrashed me until I became unconscious.”

“I stayed at the centre but for 3 months they physically assaulted me everyday. The situation was such that at times when I was taking meals they used to splash water on me, drag me when I was asleep and what not, ” the girl further said.

Stating that she does not want anyone else to undergo what she had gone through in the rehab centre, the girl urged CM Sarma to take appropriate steps to check such incidents.

She said, “I do not want that what I have undergone should happen to anyone else. The inmates do not deserve the violence which is going on in the rehab centres. Violence is not the answer. They try to de-addict by beating, through violence. The only way of the treatment according to the rehab centres is to stay inside a closed room and correct oneself.

I think girls staying in rehab centres are suffering. I do not want that anyone should go through a phase which I had to go through.

I want that the government must make surprise visits in the rehab centres and monitor them strictly. The conditions of the inmates must also be monitored.

I request the CM to closely monitor the rehab centres because it is often less known as to what is happening inside the rehab centres.”

Well, this is not the first case when a rehabilitation centre has come under question.

In February this year, a man was murdered at a drug rehabilitation centre in Guwahati’s Hatigaon area after he was attacked by another inmate.

Not only this, in July a drug rehabilitation centre located in Guwahati’s Kahilipara, was sealed by the state anti-drug and prohibition council following the recovery of the body of a 32-year-old inmate under mysterious circumstances.

Police arrested the caretaker, Raktim Kalita, of the drug rehabilitation centre, Aakaar, following interrogation and analysing the CCTV footage which showed him beating the deceased inmate mercilessly.